Man rescued after front stoop gives way and drops him 8 feet into a hole

View full sizeRobert A. Baker / The Post-StandardFirefighters pull a Syracuse homeowner from a vault no one knew existed beneath his front porch. The man fell down 8 feet into the hole when a stone slab broke.

Syracuse, NY -- A man walking out the front door of his Syracuse house was injured today when a stone slab fractured and gave way, dropping the man about 8 feet into a vault no one knew existed.

The freak accident occurred about 1 p.m. at 542 Audubon Parkway, a quiet street on Syracuse's East Side.

The Syracuse Fire Department's Technical Rescue Unit was called to rescue Ricky Hill, 52, Deputy Fire Chief Stephen Cavuto said at the scene. The man was conscious and alert, but had at least an arm injury in the fall.

The front porch was about 16 inches off the ground but constructed over an 8-foot deep hole, Cavuto said. The hole was big enough to send another firefighter down to help in the rescue, but that was about it. There was no entry way into the hole from the basement of the home, Cavuto said.

"There's no rhyme or reason for the way it's constructed," Cavuto said.

Firefighters used rope and pulleys to get the man out. An aerial tower truck was parked by the house and its ladder was maneuvered above the hole to let firefighters hook up the pulleys. About a half hour after the call went out, firefighters hoisted the man out and put him on a backboard

Hill was taken by ambulance to Upstate University Hospital. His wife accompanied him. "He's OK," said his son, Jordan Hill.

Cavuto said it appeared that a 1-inch stone slab broke and dropped the man down, he said. Parts of the landing fell down with him.

The hole measured about 3 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet. Family members looked in disbelief as they put plywood over the hole.

Cavuto was concerned as he looked down the block. All the houses appeared to be similar in construction. Each had the same two-step stoops along the west side of the street. He was concerned each also had an unknown vault under the steps.